Disorder-driven control of magnetism and topology in FeGe*

Magnetic spin textures are both fundamentally intriguing and relevant to novel information storage and processing units, such as the racetrack memory which harnesses electromagnetism in solids to link topological properties to electronic transport phenomena. Recent results from our collaborators found evidence of 3D chiral spin textures, such as helical spins and skyrmions with different chirality and topological charge, stabilized in amorphous Fe–Ge thin films [1]. Here, we look at the emergence of chiral spin textures in structurally disordered FeGe by means of first-principles calculations and ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations. We investigate how the introduction of atomic-scale disorder affects the electronic, magnetic, and topological properties of FeGe.

 

[1] Streubel, R., Bouma, D. S., Bruni, F., Chen, X., Ercius, P., Ciston, J., N'Diaye, A. T., Roy, S., Kevan, S. D., Fischer, P., Hellman, F., Chiral Spin Textures in Amorphous Iron–Germanium Thick Films. Adv. Mater. 2021, 33, 2004830.